This fall, numerous sophomores across the state of Ohio made a major impact for their high school teams and jumped onto the recruiting radar. One of the best is Avon product Ross Douglas. The 5-foot-9, 170-pound running back/defensive back had a breakout sophomore season for the Eagles and has established himself as one of the top class of 2013 prospects in the Buckeye State.

"Individually, I had a good season," said Douglas. "I had 715 yards (rushing) and nine touchdowns. I was first team all-conference and first team all-county."

This past Thursday, Ohio State assistant coach Taver Johnson stopped by the school to speak with the coaches about the speedy sophomore. Douglas is already somewhat familiar with the Ohio State program as he was on campus for the game against Eastern Michigan in September.

"I liked the Ohio State visit," he said. "I got to meet Jim Tressel and that's always a plus. It was also good that it was Eastern Michigan because a dude that graduated from my high school got a scholarship to play there (Garrett Gronowski). I just wanted to see the beautiful campus of Ohio State and the rowdy fans."

In addition to Ohio State, Douglas is reporting interest from Michigan, Michigan State, North Carolina, and West Virginia. During the season, Douglas was able to get out on some unofficial visits to some of those schools.

"During the football season I got invited to a couple of games," Douglas explained. "Ohio State vs. Eastern Michigan, Michigan vs. Illinois, Michigan State vs. Wisconsin, and Penn State vs. Michigan. The Michigan State game was a crazy game. They pulled off a thriller against Wisconsin and they didn't have their coach at the time and their assistant coach came and filled in and they came out on top."

Douglas won't have to go through the recruiting process alone, however, as junior teammate Bryan Cox Jr. is also being recruited by many of the same schools.

"He just tells me to be patient," Douglas explained. "We just try to help each other out (with the recruiting process)."

This spring Douglas will be making an effort to get to as many college practices as possible, with Ohio State being one of his hopeful destinations. From there, he'll be hitting the camp circuit hard over the summer.

"I'll definitely be hitting some camps this summer," he said. "We haven't set the full (schedule) but Ohio State is a definite camp that I'm going to."

Despite the fact that Douglas has been primarily a running back during his high school career, most schools are recruiting him as a corner, including the Buckeyes.

"I'm being recruited by most of the coaches as a defensive back," he explained. "I didn't really play corner this year because they really needed me to play offense as a play maker. All the camps I go to I put myself down as a corner back and workout with the DB's."

The fact that most schools are saying defense is certainly sitting well with Douglas.

"In college I want to play defense because I really love playing corner back," he said. "Usually it's athlete on athlete. The corners are great athletes and the receivers are great athletes so you really get to push yourself and test yourself because you're out on an island by yourself. You just have to focus on one thing, the person that's on your island and shutting them down."